Before a guest sleeps a night in your hotel, you can be sure they’ve evaluated your online presence. Social feeds, websites, blog posts, and reviews are the digital touchpoints travelers use to get a feel for the guest experience at your property as they consider a stay. In this article, you’ll learn how to rise above your competitors and establish a polished omnichannel presence that entices travelers.
Why Is Online Presence Important?
We live and travel in a digital world. Even as digital platforms rise and fall, the constant is that we’re connected through technology. A strong online presence has become essential for any hotel that hopes to be competitive and attract travelers. Hotel guests research multiple brands, multiple times during the customer journey. Hotels that fail to establish a robust digital presence are the first to flounder when the travel demand begins to abate.
Building a strong online presence requires thoughtful planning and execution, but the benefits are significant, and the downside of not doing so is a chasm. In this article, you’ll find practical tips for building a strong online presence to attract and convert travelers.
How to Audit Your Hotel’s Online Presence
You can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been.
Your hotel’s online presence is critical in driving your brand’s visibility. The cornerstone of a memorable digital experience is having cohesive messaging across all touchpoints that communicate why your brand is the superior choice for potential guests. It’s important to assess all channels and mediums used to push content to ensure your story is communicated accurately and effectively.
Your property’s primary website is central to the online experience, so aligning the web experience with all the organic and digital advertising channels that point directly to it is crucial. This means assessing whether or not you’ve created a seamless user journey. To do this, your team should consider the following elements:
- Channels Pointing to Your Website: Take stock of all the channels where your brand appears online, such as social accounts and review sites, and assess how they direct traffic to your website. Be sure your messaging on such third-party channels aligns with your website content.
- SEO and SEM Alignment: Ensure that your search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) efforts are working together seamlessly to maximize visibility for your brand across search engines. By creating affinity groups based on specific audience interests, hotels, and resorts can target these groups with tailored messaging that speaks directly to their needs and preferences. This can help hotels connect with potential customers who may not have found the property through organic search, and reinforces brand messaging across multiple channels.
- Social Media Profiles and Content: Assess whether or not you’re on the right social media channels for your target audience, and optimize your profiles to build an audience that engages with your content regularly. Ensure your website’s imagery aligns with imagery pushed on social channels.
- Social Media Advertising: Review your current advertising approach on social media channels and check that you’re reaching your target audience. Be strategic in identifying key personas to target and ensuring your website has the content to speak directly to them, including tailored offers, local area content, and relevant amenities and room types.
- Google My Business Profile: Confirm that your Google My Business profile has been built out, optimized, and is up-to-date so that when someone searches for your brand name, you show up. This includes ensuring that your information is accurate and up-to-date.
7 Ways to Polish Your Hotel’s User Journey
After understanding the state of your online presence, search for places you can polish and platforms offering space to grow your digital footprint.
1. Analyze Your Competition
Start by analyzing your competition to see what they’re offering and where gaps in the market might be. Look at competitor websites, and comb through their social media profiles and reviews to see what their guests say about them. This can help you identify areas where you can stand out and offer something unique. This might be your location, amenities, design, customer service, or other factors. Identify at least one or two unique selling points (USPs) you can emphasize in your marketing.
2. Collect and Showcase Reviews
Positive reviews are a powerful hotel marketing tool. Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews on TripAdvisor and Yelp, and showcase these reviews on your website and social media profiles. This will help potential guests see previous guests’ experiences and build trust with your brand.
3. Listen to Your Guests
Listening to guest reviews can help hotels stay ahead of the competition by identifying areas where they can improve and highlighting key features and amenities that stand out in the guests’ eyes. Further, by addressing content gaps identified through user reviews, hotels can create additional content on the website and through other digital channels by identifying key unique selling points to inform future content and optimizations.
4. Feature Your USP in Your Marketing
Once you’ve identified your USP, use them consistently in your marketing materials, website, paid advertising, email, and social media outreach. Highlight these unique features in your descriptions and photos, and use them to create a distinctive brand identity. This will help potential guests see what sets your hotel apart and why they should choose it.
5. Offer Value-Added Content
Create blog posts, videos, and “nearby things to do” content that provides added value to potential customers. Share tips for traveling in your area. Offer insights on local attractions and events. This can position your hotel as an expert in the area, sell the location, and build trust with potential customers. Taking content strategy to the next level, this content should be personalized for specific hotel audiences and to attract guests who are looking for a unique and personalized experience. Families may want to know five things they can do with their kids on a rainy day. Couples may wish to know the five most romantic spots around town.
6. Emphasize Visual Content
In our visually-driven world, hotels can improve their online presence by investing in high-quality visual content, such as photos and videos that showcase their property, amenities, and local attractions. With the rise of image-first platforms like Instagram and TikTok, visual content is more important than ever, and can offer potential guests a clear understanding of what to expect during their stay.
7. Encourage User-Generated Content
Encourage guests to share their experiences on-site and in the surrounding community. Establish and publicize designated hashtags to build buzz around your property and locale. User-generated content, or UGC, also provides social proof of your unique selling points, increases your online visibility, and attracts more potential guests.
The odds are your marketing team is already executing a number of these digital marketing best practices. Still, consistently auditing and evaluating your digital presence is essential for identifying areas of opportunity and staying ahead of the competition.
Working with a third-party digital marketing agency is another reliable way to take your online presence to the next level. Any experienced digital marketing partner will bring fresh eyes to your digital marketing approach, introduce leadership and actionable steps in optimizing your online presence, not to mention save your team time and offer analytics that shows the fruits of your alliance.
The online world is vast, but so are the growth opportunities. Stay mindful of your online presence and stay ahead of the competition.
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